Yes, there is a notice directly on the show page as well as during the beginning of video playback that will let you know the date of last showing if it is about to leave. They also put out a comprehensive list every month of what is leaving and what is coming, so if you follow that, you will know which things to watch before they are gone. It would be really nice if Viki had this capability also.
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As volunteers, we act with what information we have. When we’re given some idea the license is going, we do try to finish it if it’s in progress or ask OL teams to finish it, and send a notice to viewers.
Despite our best efforts of communicating these years I’ve been here with the overlords…it is far from a science, and we get caught flat-footed. Even on airs may have weird moments where it’s coming, then it’s not, then it’s there a couple weeks, then it’s not, then it’s back…“Love and Destiny” did some odd gyrations for one. It is said content providers too are part of the odd variables as to when and how dramas come and go. An example is a Jin Yong - the earlier version of “Demi-gods and Semi-devils”, where it was said the content provider suddenly decided to entirely take it down with no warning at all.
I am…surprised to hear the competitors are that interested when well, the point is right above, Netflix does indeed not only say to viewers things are leaving, but even provides to nearly every media outlet on earth a list of coming and going in advance of their movements. They take great pride in promoting and seem to get a lot of free press on both scores, the 'watch it now" or “coming soon” blazoned indeed…no…mystery.
Is it not interesting that the market leader now in many genres has no problem putting such information forth and indeed revels in it?
I even remember in frustration we as volunteers tried to get some idea when things were going by looking at page code…and this too was useless. Interesting reading how pages are set up? Sure. Information we could use? not really lol.
Anyway, over the years, yes, teams have tried to find out what’s going on to adjust their work loads and do what can be done if anything. No less frustration this September 2021 than the past ones really on this score.
I think now we’re more “out of sight, out of mind” than ever as volunteers.
All of you, be safe, and mind that damned pandemic out there, okay? Watch the weather reports as well as the dramas…and please…be…safe.
GeNie of the Lamp
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Couldn’t Viki put a notice somewhere on a drama’s home page at least indicating the date a license was obtained and for how long it runs? That’s a matter of someone who can type actually just sitting down and (DUH) copying information from a piece of paper in a folder.
If the folks in . . . Singapore? . . . want things to run smoothly so that Viki provides a good income stream for Rakuten, just a teeny bit of licence information is something that would ramp down negative fan comments and keep rude timed comments to a minimum.
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HaaHa! That would happen when binary numbers cannot outnumber the decimal system in addition.
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It’s another one of those things that falls under the heading “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.”
Of course, that raises the question “when will I get an answer?”
The answer, as has been noted before, can be summarized as, “When pigs fly.”
(Giphy)
But (and this is my last cliché for the moment), “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
(Giphy)
P.S. The GIF is from https://www.simon-tv.com/ which looks to be a great source of entertainment and education for kids . …
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Well, well what do we know … Licenses may differ in the different regions … That is one point. Singapore? Can be as well San Francisco or any other office of them, can we tell?
If you ever have too much time … There are some old threads and I do not see any difference to today. Do you?
https://discussions.viki.com/t/deleting-licensed-dramas-without-prior-notice/16054
https://discussions.viki.com/t/deleting-licensed-dramas-without-prior-notice-and-other-issues-the-second/16072
What I was really searching for high and low was this information from Viki in 2019, yes, 2,5 years ago … Did something come out of it? Not really. Since back then it is either in the pipeline as they said or has it ended up as a barrel burst?
Wanted to leave a message there to bring it up again, but for some mysterious reason I can’t sign it at the Help Center. Anyone else? — update — suddenly I am signed back in at the HC without doing anything I guess the system went buggy
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Wow. It’s like . . . I don’t know . . . teaching a child to talk and then having someone take it away, never to be seen or heard from again.
This is where the fantasy breaks down, that Viki is still an all-volunteer, student-run, everybody-is-on-the-same-level-enterprise.
It’s a fantasy definitely encouraged by Viki in order to keep fans and volunteers coming back. Otherwise their overhead would be astronomically high, and their subscriptions would be almost non-existent, and Viki would end up going the way of DramaFever.
Every time licenses expire, the hard work of hundreds of people literally disappears, and if Viki decides it’s not worth renewing licenses, well, too bad.
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Yes I watched some episodes, you can see subtitlers translated it, if this is a production from one of the 3 networks “Kocowa” perhaps they decided to delay so Kocowa can air first… it’s would be ridiculous.
Also The Veil is posted on Viki’s main page as On Air but when in fact it will air in 9 days. (Under latest release)
It must be a “fight” among the producing networks and streaming networks, everyone’s trying to gather the most, the best, for most money likely as well… well it’s a business in the end.
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I think that Viki may be in the situation some businesses get into. Maybe they are doing much better than anyone expected and have more subscriptions, but they aren’t quite at a point where they can afford to duke it out with other streaming services for all the content that they need to keep viewers happy.
And they can’t afford to hire more staff to keep track of certain aspects of the business.
Sigh.
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You are assuming things at least in this thread for one drama you get some information from the CM:
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I remember some time ago kocowa content airing on viki was always much later, content that was only in English, quasi a loaner from kocowa, and yes I said if… perhaps.
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I can’t say much about it since my watching habits changed drastically over the past five and especially the past 2 years. I only watch one show at a time, that is fully subbed and finished airing. Only one time I broke this habit because of a special situation of a drama I anticipated with a certain actor, and he was switch so to be able to compare the portrayal of the ML’s character I watched it prior to being finish. That was the only exception so far.
So, if a drama was streamed later for whatever reason, I simply won’t notice that.
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Interestingly, Secret Garden and Tree With Deep Roots are here right now. They were gone and then came back or was their license renewed as soon as it expired? They also have their old subs. So Viki does keep them. And it can get licenses again.
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Some are back with the viki subs but for pay to see them - not free as they were before they left.
Also, they did say they keep the subs. Sometimes though when it’s put back…the timing is ruined.
FWIW sigh.
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Not renewed as soon as it expired, I can’t say anything for the Americas.
For Europe/Germany I can say that:
Faith - was gone round about a year and then came back licensed
Cinderella Sister - was at least 6-8 years gone, now licensed again
Signal - was gone for I think almost a year as well is back with a new license
Jewel of the Palace - was gone - came back, is gone again LOL
Drunken to Love You - was probably 3 years gone, don’t really recall the time, but it is back as well.
Some dramas I think got re-licensed too:
W, Angel Eyes, Healer, Heartstrings, Kill Me Heal Me, I Remember You, Fated To Love You (Korea), Uncontrollably Fond, Hi School - Love On, My Princess, Lie To Me, Personal Taste, Mask, You Are All Surrounded, Shopaholic Louis (even with a different title), Princess Hours, Shining Inheritance, Rooftop Prince, Falling For Innocense, Sungkyunkwan Scandal (I am not sure if this one needed to be re-subbed, I know there was one drama that they saved faulty and the subs were gone, but not sure if this was it.), Coffee Prince, Don’t Dare to Dream, King of High School, and more …
Of course there are dramas who lost the license and never gotten it back, some channels got completely deleted and others never ever got a license for my region, but well … That’s life! Or like the French say - C’est la vie!
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What is goooooing on? My head is spinning faster than norrmal. Oh, never mind, it’s just another day in Viki-Land . . .
(Giphy)
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well…and the two great deletions of the Chinese fan channels…sigh. Few were licensed but most of them, work on them despite their status, yes, gone.
anyway…it’s all part of being a “volunteer”. 
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Well fan channels in general were deleted from all other countries too, like Thailand, Korea, Romania, Turkey, Russia, France, and now I do not recall the actual country, but it was from South America I think, … As they were not licensed and the laws got stricter.
P.S. there were many, many more from Asian, European and American countries. A lot was lost.
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Very sad indeed.
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